Your journey to stillness encompasses three stages that build on each other. I will now briefly introduce each of these three stages:
Stage 1: Discovering the State of Stillness
Stage 1 introduces you to stillness and how you can start cultivating this important state. Through the practice of stillness, you learn to access a distinct physical and mental state, during which you are neither asleep nor moving. This practice invites you to temporarily suspend your body’s movement, remain still, observe your breath, ground yourself, and soften muscles throughout your body.
The goal in Stage 1 is to experience restfulness, which goes beyond merely resisting impulses to move, act, or interact. Activating restfulness awakens a sense of comfort, indicating that your parasympathetic nervous system has been engaged, leading to inner homeostasis and wellbeing.
Stage 2: Becoming an Embodied Still Self
Building on the practice of stillness, Stage 2 helps you form the “biological identity” of an embodied still self. This identity represents your behavior as a biological living organism and is more fundamental to human existence than the identities you assume as a member of society with its defined roles.
Through practices of embodiment, this stage strengthens your sense of physical self, presence, and separateness. As an embodied still self, you become acutely aware of the ever-present behavioral choice between moving or remaining in stillness in response to triggers in your environment.
Stage 3: Responding with Stillness
Familiarity with the state of stillness, and having formed the identity of an embodied still self, Stage 3 encourages you to explore the extraordinary benefits of stillness as your first response to both the pains and pleasures you encounter in life.
Emotional intelligence is motional intelligence; it defines our behavior as we seek to survive and thrive. Practices in this final stage allow you to sensitively investigate your emotional responses and the underlying motivations to move and act.
From birth, and through DNA that ensures the survival of the species, you are programmed to escape pain and chase after pleasure. Stillness is a radically different approach—a higher program of nature—where you discover the ability to endure pain, forge pleasure, and access the gifts of wellbeing, vitality, and joy, moving beyond mere survival to true living.
The Three Stages in Sequence
The three stages toward stillness build on each other. You need to discover the state of stillness before you can form the “biological identity” of an embodied still self. And you must experience your embodied autonomy to become fully aware of your behavioral choice to remain still in the face of life’s challenges and opportunities.
Finally, as an embodied still self, acting in the best interest of yourself as a living organism, you can fully explore the extraordinary benefits of stillness as a first response to life’s pains and pleasures.
